If you are trying to lose weight, stretching should be part of the process. There is nothing like getting started with weight loss exercises and feeling that dull ache running through your body. If you are even slightly overweight, exercising is hard work and it is quite taxing on your body as well as your mind. One way that you can improve the way that exercise affects your body is to stretch before and after each of the workouts that you do. While stretching itself won’t allow you to actually lose weight, it prepares your body for all that is to come later. That’s what you need to take into consideration.
Stretching Before
Before you get started with your workout, take a few minutes to stretch. Work on stretching each of your muscles groups and rotating all of your joints from the head down. Relax as you do this and allow for your body to really feel the stretching happening. When this happens, you will fully wake up your body so that it can experience a full benefit of the workout that is to come. In addition, you’ll be able to provide your body with the best protection from injury later on. Once you have safely, slowly and actively stretched each muscle in your body, you can begin your workout.
After Your Workout
After you have completed your workout, it is time to begin stretching again. Why should you stretch now? The stretching that you do before you workout allows your body to be prepared and to avoid injury. The stretching that you will be doing now helps your body to begin to repair the muscles and also helps you to be less sore tomorrow. By stretching now, you allow your body to cool down and to come to terms what the routine that you just did, already starting to heal.
Stretching in this manner allows you to feel good before, during and after your workout. Not only do you get more from that workout because you did the stretching, but you also keep yourself from being hurt along the way. This allows for the most overall beneficial workout that you can gain. That means that you won’t be too sore to work out again tomorrow. All of this leads to the fact that you will be able to lose weight faster and more effectively.